Max and Lisa spent Thanksgiving Day 2003 by staying in Spring Falls. They were invited by their families in Spoonerville and Philadelphia, but they both turned them down. Lisa turned down her family's invitation for a lot of reasons, including the fact that she knew it would be exactly like all the Thanksgiving Days she had with them in the past and nothing would be different and that she felt better for being away from them and that she still didn't want anything to do with them anymore among them but the biggest reason she turned her family's invitation down was because they invited her but not Max. If she couldn't celebrate Thanksgiving with him, then she wouldn't celebrate Thanksgiving at all.
Max turned down his family's invitation only because both he and Lisa had to work at Time Land the next day and it was a long journey to go to Spoonerville and back in one day, which Goofy and Sylvia understood. But Max and Lisa did write Goofy, Sylvia and Hannah a happy Thanksgiving card to them and when they spoke on the phone on the actual day, they wished them happy Thanksgiving Day. Lisa did send her family a Thanksgiving card but they didn't send one back to her and they didn't call her to wish her a happy Thanksgiving at all. However, Lisa didn't care because she had Max to spend Thanksgiving Day with and he was the one she wanted to spend the day with, no matter what.
Because Time Land was closed for Thanksgiving Day, Max and Lisa spent most of the day helping out at the Spring Falls homeless shelter. Lisa hadn't done this since Thanksgiving 1997 while she lived in Spoonerville. While she lived in Philadelphia, she wanted to help the poor and homeless people there and she would have if her parents didn't stop her and force her to attend Thanksgiving dinners with her awful family. So when she did it for the first time since 1997 in Spring Falls on Thanksgiving Day 2003, she felt very good about herself that she was helping people who were less fortunate than she was on this very special day. Her job that day was to help with the cooking and her cooking helped to make it a complete success for the homeless shelter.
Max continued to volunteer to help poor and homeless people on every Thanksgiving Day, wherever he was. He did it at Spoonerville College for the two years he was there, with his dad and Sylvia helping as well, and he did it at the Spring Falls homeless shelter at very Thanksgiving ever since he moved there. He even did on Thanksgiving Day 2002 because it helped him to take his mind off Mona, even though Mona actually helped him on Thanksgiving Days 2000 and 2001. Max's job had always been serving the food and drinks to the people the shelter supported and he always did a great job too and this year's Thanksgiving was no different.
After doing an excellent job at the Spring Falls homeless shelter and feeling very proud of it, it was time for Max and Lisa to go back to their apartment and have their own Thanksgiving dinner. Because it was just the two of them, they bought and cooked enough food and they were grateful for it all the same.
"Can I go first with what I'm thankful for this year, Lisa?" Max asked, as he sat down at the table.
"Go ahead, Max," Lisa said, as she sat down at the table.
"I'm thankful for a lot of stuff," Max said. "I'm thankful for this apartment, I'm thankful for all this delicious food that you cooked very well, I'm thankful for my job, I'm thankful for my family and my friends, I'm thankful for what we achieved at the homeless shelter today and most of all I'm thankful to you, Lisa, for coming back into my life and for being my girlfriend again. I know we had to start our relationship from scratch again, but to me it has been completely worth it."
Lisa smiled with happy tears coming out of her eyes. They both knew that not every couple got back together again, especially after five years, and at first they weren't trying to get back together, even though they slept together and made out with each other every night. Max still wasn't willing to try a new relationship with a new lady because of what Mona did to him and Lisa dated a few guys – both members of staff and customers at Time Land – but she never established a relationship with any of them. Soon, Lisa gave up on dating more guys. She gave up for many reasons, but the main reason was that none of them were like Max and she got him back in her life and she never ever wanted to lose him ever again. Max was also so pleased to have Lisa back in his life that he decided to stop letting what Mona did to him get to him and to be brave enough to try starting a new relationship with Lisa. Luckily, Lisa was delighted to try it as well and it was a decision neither she nor Max regretted. In fact, both agreed that getting back together was the best decision they ever made in both their lives.
"Thanks, Max," Lisa said. "That's really wonderful. Now, here's what I'm thankful for this year. I'm thankful for getting away from my awful family and their terrible friends, I'm grateful for this apartment, I'm grateful for all this lovely food, I'm grateful for helping those people at the homeless shelter, I'm grateful for my job –"
"And what about your promotion last week and only five months after you started work?" Max asked.
Lisa's work career began when she applied for the job applications at Time Land that Max took from the day he gave her a tour of the resort. She had an interview with the employers of these jobs and afterwards they all told her how they were very impressed with her resume and how well her interviews went and they all told her that they wanted to hire her. Lisa was very honored, but sadly she could only choose one and the one she chose was being a waitress at the most expensive hotel called Temple of the Gods in the City of El Dorado. She made the right choice because she was very good at her job and she really enjoyed her job. As if that wasn't impressive enough, there was a job opening for the next assistant manager of the hotel five months later and Lisa applied for it and she got it, beating other people who were older and more experienced than her. And she was a very good assistant manager and she helped to make the hotel better for the guests and the staff than it ever was.
"Yes, that too," Lisa admitted. "But the thing I'm most thankful for in this whole wide world is that you're back in my life too, Max, and that we're in a relationship again. And I'm glad we did what we did by building it from scratch again instead of not doing it at all."
What Lisa said made Max cry happy tears too. "Thanks, Lisa."
Then they hugged and kissed each other before they ate and enjoyed their delicious Thanksgiving dinner.
After finishing their delicious Thanksgiving dinner and washing up and tiding up, Max and Lisa watched the next Lord of the Rings movie: The Two Towers, which they enjoyed watching. Then they went to bed, got naked and had sex with each other. Even though it was the last thing they did at night and they were grateful for everything that day, it was the one thing they were grateful for the most that day.